History of Go

Go was born at Google around 2007.

Three people built it: Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson.

They wanted code that is fun to write and still fast.

Big Google projects took a long time to build. Go was made to build quickly.

The problem they felt

Huge codebases were hard to grow.

Builds were slow. Tools were messy. Team code was hard to read.

Go tried to fix those pains with simple rules.

Timeline in tiny steps

2007: work on Go starts inside Google.

2009: Go is shared with the world as open source.

2012: Go 1.0 arrives. Old Go 1 code is meant to keep working.

What stayed the same

Go still likes one loop word: for.

Errors are usually returned as values, not thrown like balls.

Go cleans up unused memory for you.

What came later

Modules made sharing packages clearer.

Go 1.18 added generics so one recipe can work with many types.

Tools kept getting better, but the language stayed small.

A tiny nod to today

Even a short program today still starts with package main.

That front door has stayed the same for a long time.

Go 1 compatibility means most old Go 1 code still builds today.